Balfour Beatty boss quits company

Balfour Beatty was dealt a double blow recently, as its chief executive, Andrew McNaughton announced his resignation with immediate effect. The firm has appointed its current chairman, Steve Marshall, to fulfil Mr McNaughton’s duties until a successor is found for the departing chief executive. At the same time, Balfour Beatty issued the news that it expected its 2014 group profits to be between £145 million and £160 million, which is significantly lower than was previously forecast, due partly to operational issues within the group’s UK construction business.

As a result of these problems, the Balfour Beatty group now intend to become more focused as a whole by undertaking a strategic review in an attempt to ‘simplify its structure’. It is predicted that part of the strategic review will involve discussions related to the possible sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff, the group’s consulting business. The only stipulation for the sale is that it provides ‘attractive shareholder value’, although the general consensus already seems to be that offering professional services and a construction business within a single organisation has failed to deliver ‘material competitive advantage’.